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‘American Horror Story: Coven’ Episode 5 Recap – “Burn, Witch. Burn!”

New Orleans, All Hallows’ Eve, 1833: As with the first episode of American Horror Story: Coven, “Burn, Witch. Burn!” starts off with a flashback to when LaLaurie’s family was still alive. After LaLaurie scares off one of her eldest daughter’s male suitors, the eldest daughter plots with her sisters to murder LaLaurie.

LaLaurie overhears their conversation and, that night, has her three daughters brought to the dungeon. She tells them they’ll be kept in the dungeon for one year, until next Hallows’ Eve, and her eldest daughter – the ringleader – will be fed a mouthful of shit on Christmas day.

Present-day: Marie Laveau’s zombie army is marching up to the house, with LaLaurie, Zoe, Nan, Queenie, Spalding, and Luke (the hottie from next door) trapped inside.

Meanwhile, Cordelia has just had acid thrown in her face. At the hospital waiting room, Fiona becomes hysterical when the doctor tells her that they failed to save Cordelia’s optic nerve, meaning Cordelia has lost her eyesight.

Back at the school, Zoe attempts to contact Cordelia, after closing the curtains and shutting off all the lights; Queenie reminds her that the zombies already know they’re home. Luke thinks the zombies are just a bunch of neighborhood kids pulling a prank, so he goes outside to confront them. When he sees a wandering teen get ripped apart, however, he realizes they’re not just a bunch of innocent neighbourhood kids. As he tries to flee, a zombie knocks him to the ground.

Nan heads outside to save Luke, while Zoe ushers everyone else upstairs. Nan manages to get an injured Luke into the car.

Fiona watches over an unconscious Cordelia at the hospital. Later, she breaks into the medication room and takes some pills. She begins seeing visions of the hooded figure from the bar and wanders into the room of a mother who just gave birth to a stillborn. She makes the woman hold the body of the stillborn, and then uses her powers to bring the baby back to life.

Nan and Luke, meanwhile, are trapped in the car with the zombie horde crowding around them. Zoe manages to divert their attention and they begin chasing after her.

Inside, LaLaurie orders Queenie to stay in bed and for Spalding to watch over her while she goes downstairs to get some ice. LaLaurie’s zombified eldest daughter appears outside the kitchen window. Overcome with emotion, LaLaurie opens the door and pleads with her zombie daughter to come back to her. Zombie Daughter suddenly grabs LaLaurie’s throat.

Spalding leaves Queenie’s room, only to get hit over the head by Zombie Daughter. Queenie goes to see what’s happened, and retreats back into the room in fear. Zombie Daughter breaks down the door and Queenie attempts to use her human voodoo powers to kill the zombie but to no avail. LaLaurie comes to the rescue by piercing her zombified daughter through the chest. As LaLaurie breaks down into tears on the bed, Queenie comforts her.

Outside, Luke and Nan are cornered by a horde of zombies when Zoe suddenly appears with a chainsaw. While Zoe kills the zombies, Luke and Nan retreat into the house. The chainsaw malfunctions just as one last zombie corners Zoe. She suddenly manifests another, mysterious power and uses it to knock the zombie out.

Marie Laveau gets knocked out, as well. She comments that she has no idea what happened, but the witches have got real power, now.

Hank arrives at the hospital, where he and Fiona quickly get into an argument. He accuses Fiona of not caring about her daughter, and she calls him a loser. A nurse orders one of them to get out since they’re arguing so loudly. Fiona heads out, telling Hank he’s got fifteen minutes.

Back at the school, Fiona watches over a zombie bonfire and permits Luke to stay with them until he gets better, much to Nan’s delight.

The Council arrives and rules that Fiona must abdicate her position as Supreme, seeing as how a bunch of shit keeps going down. Fiona accuses Myrtle Snow of blinding Cordelia. Myrtle was the hooded figure in black and it also turns out that Myrtle has been living in New Orleans under a false name. She was obsessed with Fiona and bringing about her downfall. Fiona then takes Myrtle’s glove off and reveals burn marks on her hand. Given all the evidence, the other Council members order Myrtle to be burned at the stake. Myrtle doesn’t put up much of a fight and says she will gladly burn.

They take Myrtle to a secluded location and burn her. Zoe and the other girls watch in disbelief.

Later, Queenie comes into Fiona’s room and asks if she helped frame a guilty woman or an innocent woman. It’s revealed that Queenie burned Myrtle’s hand using her human voodoo powers as a favor to Fiona. The burned hand is what ultimately condemned Myrtle. Fiona manages to manipulate Queenie into thinking she might be the next Supreme and Queenie easily falls into Fiona’s trap.

Finally, at the end of the episode, Misty Day comes by to the area where Myrtle was burned. She then uses her powers to bring Myrtle back to life.